358 PAEAS1TES OF ANIMALS 



repeatedly witnessed by myself, are in the habit of swallowing 

 large quantities of soft mud during the summer months, but 

 no traces of masuri have as yet been detected in their 

 faeces. 



When by letter I informed Major-General Hawkes of an inte- 

 resting find by Mr Collins of about a thousand Amphistomes in 

 the colon of a horse that had died at Simla, the announcement 

 called forth a reply which is sufficiently instructive to be quoted. 

 Writing from Secunderabad in July, 1875, he says, respecting 

 this " find : " " Your statement has incidentally thrown light 

 upon a subject which has puzzled many of us in this country. 

 It occasionally happens that a horse, on being opened after 

 death, is found to have accumulated in his intestines large 

 quantities of sand and gravel. In a recent case this accumula- 

 tion amounted to 14J Ibs. Until recently it was always held 

 that this gravel or sand could only be introduced with the 

 animal's food. All grain in this country is trodden out by 

 bullocks on an earthen floor, and the grain undoubtedly contains 

 a proportion of sand and gravel derived from this source. 

 Although this ought to be carefully washed out before it is given 

 to the horse, still, owing to the carelessness of the native horse- 

 keepers, this cleaning is, I expect, often omitted. In the daily 

 ' feed ' of eight or ten pounds of grain given to each horse the 

 utmost quantity of sand or gravel that could be found admixed 

 therewith would not probably exceed two or three ounces; 

 consequently it would take from 77 to 116 days to accumulate 

 so large a quantity as 14 J Ibs. Now, the advocates of the theory 

 of the gradual accumulation of sand in this way have never been 

 able to explain why the grain, grass, hay, and other ingesta 

 should pass in the ordinary way through the intestines, whilst 

 this sand or gravel remains behind. One can understand the 

 possibility of such substances as wool, hair, or similar matters 

 concreting in the alimentary canal, though I believe they are 

 usually found in the stomach, and not in the intestines ; but 

 how a most incohesive substance like sand can possibly accumu- 

 late in the gradual way required by their theory I have never 

 heard even plausibly explained. On the other hand, the fact 

 that horses are often excessively addicted to eating earth is 

 well known ; and if my memory serves me correctly, it was 

 found necessary, about twenty years ago, to remove the mud- 

 walls of the pickets surrounding some of the horses of a 

 mounted corps in this presidency in consequence of this habit. 



